Animals and Fowl - Part One

Since Bob took the course on Wildlife Photography, his animal shots are numerous and fun. Here is a beginning sampling of animals we've run across just driving along the road or while lunching in the 'wild.'





This is a family of mule deer. So named for the large 'mule like' ears. Widely dispersed throughout Yellowstone National Park during the summer, the foraging is sparse for them in the winter and they migrate to the southern regions.

Mule deer is an exclusively western species, whereas the white tail is the most common deer seen throughout North America. There are white tailed deer in the park also, but they are so low in numbers they are not monitored.

 The main difference between the two is the shape of the antlers and tail size and appearance.

Here is the Golden-mantled ground squirrel. They are very adept at begging. There was an entire colony of these cute critters in the Sheepeaters Cliffs.

The easiest way to tell him from the chipmunk is the white stripe doesn't go up onto the face. The second way is he is slightly longer and while still quite small, almost double the size.

The ground squirrel hibernates from October to March or April.

In the fall, they cut cones from trees and cache them in middens, which are used for years and can be 15 by 30 feet. Grizzly bears search out these middens in whitebark pine habitat to obtain the nuts. (Totally not fair to the squirrel!)

Songbirds and woodpeckers, or passerine and near passerine species, comprise the majority of bird species in YS. Their habitat is mainly in areas that have a higher concentration of Willow.

I'll have to obtain a YS bird card to figure out the exact bird this is.

Monitoring of willow-songbird communities began in 2005. Birds were among the first vertebrates to return to the 1988 fire-affected areas as well as areas since that fires have occurred in.  Scientists are studying how the different bird species use different types of post-burn forests.

(Information taken from the Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook 2013)